Unplugged By David Gelernter Summary

David Hillel Gelernter, born on March 5th, 1955, is professor of computer science at Yale University. He graduated from Yale University with Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in classical Hebrew literature in 1976 and received his Ph.D. from S.U.N.Y. Stony Brook in 1982. Throughout the 1980s, Gelernter made many praiseworthy contributions to the tuple space coordination model in the field of parallel computation. In June, 1993, Gelernter was permanently injured on his right hand and eye after opening a package sent by the Unabomber. After his recovery, Gelernter later recorded the incident in his book “Drawing Life: Surviving the Unabomber” which was released in 1997.
Gelernter is the author of many books including Mirror Worlds

(1991), The Muse in the Machine (1994), Machine Beauty (1998), and his publishes are widely seen in the Wall Street Journal, New York Post, and Weekly Standard. Bill Joy, founder and Chief Scientist of Sun Microsystems, says Gelernter is "one of the most brilliant and visionary computer scientists of our time” and the New York Times called him a computer science “rock star”. In the following essay, Gelernter investigates how damaging computers can be to a child’s education by highlighting the decline of literacy, decreasing conviction of arguments, and lack of basic skills that accompany the upcoming generations.
David Gelernter published the essay, “Unplugged: The Myth of Computers in the Classroom,” in the New York Republic in 1994.

In this essay, Gelernter discusses that while the idea that computers have the potential to be very beneficial in schools, technology in the classroom has put a damper the education in America’s classrooms. He believes that although computers can quickly and easily provide answers for children, they lack the ability to make a child understand the material their reading and just gives them a quick solution instead. Multimedia for example, provides children with visualizations and “candy-quoted books (212)” to assist with comprehension—as a result, children do not receive an in-depth understanding of the text and only receive the broad ideas. This also affects how children read and their opinion of books, and as a result, books “look less appealing to them”. Gelernter believes that with the age of multimedia, it is only a matter of time that making children read straight from a text book will be considered a waste of

time.
Gelernter goes on to talk about how hypermedia can cause a decrease in the relevance of arguments.

He states that hypermedia is “a way of presenting documents onscreen without imposing a linear start-to-finish order.” This does not allow children to understand the concept of plot or create logical arguments which are both incredibly important to a child’s education. He infers that by using hypermedia, readers become ignorant of the story and as a result, the solution for the writers is to create shorter stories, more simple ideas, and decrease logic.
Lastly, Gelernter states that the problem is much broader than multimedia and hypermedia, but also calculators. In Japan, calculators aren’t used until high school because teachers want to strengthen students’ mental abilities. Gelernter states that calculators lead to the philosophy that “drilling addition and subtraction…is a waste of time”. He states that if this is true, than by not enforcing simple math skills, students’ mental abilities cannot develop

correctly.
Gelernter ends his essay by stating again that computers undoubtedly have the potential to be very beneficial in schools, but then states that there are three things that need to change for computers to obtain their full potential. First, there is a major need for a new software that brings some imagination into a child’s learning. He gives the example of creating a time-travel program that allows kids to experience how history is structured by zooming backwards through time. Second, computers should not be used for learning as part of class. They should only be used during recess or during a relaxation period. Lastly, Gelernter states “You cannot teach a child unless you look him in the face.” He says not to forget what computers are, they are like books, they are devices that help children learn for themselves.
I agree with Gelernter and I believe computers in the classroom can hinder a child’s potential to learn. A child cannot learn multiplication and division accurately if they learn it through the use of a calculator. I believe that multimedia does affect how a student perceives a book or text book. As a student, I know that I enjoy watching an educational movie or video illustration a lot more than reading a text book about the material. I also agree with Gelernter’s idea of hypermedia. I know as a student, it’s much quicker and easier to skim over a text or read a summary for the important details instead of reading the whole story. Although it takes much longer, I think it’s important to take the time to learn the material and have knowledge about it rather than just the few needed facts.